AT&T says that Dallas, Atlanta and Waco, Texas, will be the first cities to receive AT&T"s ultra-fast, low-latency fifth generation (5G) wireless service when it launches by the end of this year. The new information comes on the heels of an AT&T announcement in January that the company would be launching some form of 5G in at least a dozen markets this year. That said, these early deployments will be glorified betas, and most analysts believe that seriously commercial deployment of faster 5G broadband isn"t expected until at least 2020.

AT&T"s full announcement continues to imply that broad deployment will arrive more quickly than that.

"After significantly contributing to the first phase of 5G standards, conducting multi-city trials, and literally transforming our network for the future, we re planning to be the first carrier to deliver standards-based mobile 5G -- and do it much sooner than most people thought possible," said Igal Elbaz, senior vice president, Wireless Network Architecture and Design. "Our mobile 5G firsts will put our customers in the middle of it all."

AT&T took heat last year for trying to call 4x4 MIMO antennas and 256 QAM "5G Evolution," despite neither technology having anything to do with 5G.

This will presumably be somewhat different as AT&T tests early 5G hardware, but without the company offering more specifics it"s hard to tell. Again, expect these launches to be more trials than full commercial market launches. To help AT&T the company says it has opened a new "5G lab" in Austin, Texas.

AT&T has previously stated that the company has seen speeds up to 14 Gbps in trials of fixed 5G technology, which may someday prove beneficial to AT&T DSL customers the company refuses to upgrade. The company has been conducting trials of pre-standard 5G fixed wireless gear in Austin and Waco, Texas, Kalamazoo, Michigan, and South Bend, Indiana since last year.

The FCC"s extremely-unpopular repeal of net neutrality protections will be formally published tomorrow, acting as the starting gun for the flurry of lawsuits headed the agency"s direction. Sources tell Reuters the repeal should be published in the Federal Register as of tomorrow, formally opening the door to lawsuits by consumer groups, Mozilla, 22 state attorneys general and other interested parties. The publication also begins a 60-legislative-day deadline to attempt to reverse the repeal using the Congressional Review Act, an uphill climb that requires a majority vote in the Senate & House, as well as the signature of President Trump. read comment(s)

■AT&T has announced it will first roll out 5G to three locations this year: Dallas, Texas; Waco, Texas; and Atlanta. The early mobile 5G deployments will be based on the newly accepted industry standard for 5G technology, which was affirmed in December by 3GPP, the international wireless standards body. The 5G network will be powered by technologies including software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV), which will enable the carrier to quickly develop, deploy, and ...

Dish"s latest earnings report indicates that while Dish continues to bleed traditional satellite TV subscribers, it now has 2.2 million subscribers for its Sling TV live streaming video service. It"s the first time Sling has formally broken out its subscriber tallies for the streaming service, normally preferring to avoid breaking them out to downplay erosion of its traditional video base. And that erosion continues undaunted: Dish lost 121,000 traditional satellite TV subscribers last quarter, ending the quarter with 13.2 million total video subscribers -- down from 13.7 million subscribers last year.

Dish apparently hoped to sooth investors" nerves by highlighting the fact it saw a 47% growth in streaming video subscribers over the last year.

The problem: Sling TV subscribers pay significantly less money per month than traditional video subscribers. Dish deserves credit for offering a cheaper, more flexible product, something many cable companies avoid for fear of cannibalizing their traditional cable subscriber bases. But the lack of a wireless service (like AT&T and Verizon) limits Dish"s growth potential. And while Dish has claimed it"s considering such a service, an actual product remains perpetually out of reach.

Folks like Pivotal Research Group CEO Jeff Wlodarczak believe that T-Mobile is the natural fit.

"If T-Mobile is able to get Dish spectrum it would put them in a far better position spectrum-wise than Verizon, which would allow them to accelerate the market share gains they are already making," Wlordarczak argued. "In addition, the size of Dish s video base would give T-Mobile leverage to start their own DirecTV-Now like service (recall they just bought a small player in the area). I believe if T-Mobile goes for Dish it could put pressure on Verizon to come over the top with a more aggressive bid."

Amazon has also been tossed around as a potential merger partner, though nothing appears to have come from the rumors. read comment(s)